Why you don't see a lot of short ribs
Our recent summer wedding clients fell in love with the short ribs during their tasting and wanted that meat as a stand alone entree with no sides in the way of its attractive nature. We were happy to oblige. And this reminded me why most places won’t offer short ribs this way or you don’t see them so much outside of dine in restaurants.
Braised meats are a category of cooking that take a lot of time to cook. Typically when making a large quantity of ribs, the process can be around three days lead time. The first day is to season overnight, so that salt drives out moisture. Once seasoned, the meat is browned in a pan to make flavor via the maillard reaction. Then the ribs are placed in aromatic liquid and covered to be braised. The muscle has so much great connective tissue woven in that a low slow heat melts it away giving a tender chewy texture and liquid so full of gelatin that it turns into a wonderful sauce when reduced. But because of this, a lot of planning and time is needed to keep the dish in a continuous supply. Most business operations may not have the labor dollars to create such a meal.
The other tricky part is that short ribs reduce by half when cooked and when the bone is removed. That means for every pound of rib, only eight ounces of meat is left which is roughly two portions maybe. Therefore when costing out a plate as an entree, the food cost is much higher and the return as profit may not be in a margin for a restaurant to have it on the menu. Which is kind of a shame because the rib meat packs so much flavor.
I have had ribs from a variety of breeds. I find that short ribs from grass fed cows have more flavor and less layers of fat. I believe this to be from the fact that they are not grain or corn fed right before processing so that their bodies were not packing on weight in regards to fat deposits. My favorite breed still is Jersey because the meat is not all just beefy flavor but a balance of grass notes and dairy like qualities.
